journey to adventure

Running your own business from home can be the most freeing thing in the world. You may have heard how you can just wake up and go to your computer in your jammies, not having to endure the weather or traffic. Which is actually great! Or being able to work freely and independently, but there is a slight hiccup in there. My major problem is time management. Not having someone watching over your shoulder or allotting time restraints has caused me to allow time to escape me very easily. Listed below are things that I am trying, to help me stay on task.

1. Write Everything DownIt has been very important for me to know what my day looks like. Writing things down the night before has allowed me to have a clear picture of what needs to be done each day. Using a planner has been a tremendous help because instead of me have thousands of little papers (it has been reduced to hundreds) everywhere with notes on what I need to do I can open my planner and look at my day.

2. Bringing Time Restraints BackHaving an allotted amount of time for each task helps me to be productive. There are times when I may have to go on social media to research something or post something and I find myself scrolling and commenting on posts that I shouldn't be on. So to hold myself accountable I set a stop watch for the length of time it should take me to complete any given task. With the time ticking away it forces me to focus on the task at hand.

3. Scheduling PostWhenever possible I try to schedule post so I don’t run into the above problem (of being on scroll patrol). But there are some platforms that don’t provide the scheduling option. This goes back to writing everything down. For example, if I know on the 20th I need to post several graphics on Social Media about an upcoming event I will put it on my calendar to prepare everything on the 15th so that it's ready to post on the 20th.

4. Shooing Kids AwayIf you’ve read my early post you know that I have 3 beautiful kids. And right now they are in school. So I push to complete the majority of my work before 2:00pm (my oldest is in high school and gets out the earliest) because I know once they are home they want to tell me about their day, sign papers, and help with homework. Sometimes though I am unable to complete all my work before 2:00pm so I try to complete everything I need to for them, including dinner, before I send everyone away. Right now I don't have a private office (I'm currently located in my dining room) so at any given moment a child is liable to come up to me and start a conversation or ask a question. I have to let them know I am working for X amount of hours and that I need not to be bothered. This works the majority of the time. If I'm unable to complete a task in that time frame I put it on my calendar to complete the next day.

So these are the things I am doing to help manage my time better.What are some things you do, that seem effective, to manage your time?